When
I went to Blue Sky gallery in downtown Portland I enjoyed all of the
exhibitions, and the one that stuck out most tome me was Andrej Kremntschcuk’s No
Direction Home. The cold saturated colors that carry throughout his
photographs draw the viewer in, and communicate feelings of loss and
hopelessness. The exhibition is
composed of 21 photographs from Kremntschcuk’s work. The photographs are approximately 20x24 inches and are hung
at about eye level. They are hung
in a rectangular room in the gallery with a bench in the center. There is something eerie and haunting
about the work. The photographs
are a result of Kremntschuck’s return to his home of Russia. He captures landscapes, still lives,
and portraits of the people from his homeland. The landscapes are mostly cold and stark; each picture
focuses on a small subject in the distance, and many of the landscapes are
encased with a rolling fog. The
still lives consist of trinkets other objects that seem past worn out. The objects are in the state that
they are in they seem almost useless.
The portraits are similar in aesthetics; they consist of Russian natives
in their natural settings, going about their daily lives. All together Kremntschcuk’s works are a
reference to his cultural identity and the passage of time.
Identity
is an important subject in many artists’ work and Kremntschuck is no
exception. Identity is an
incredibly complex and diverse subject and can be interpreted in many different
ways. Kremntschcuk chooses to
explore the nature of identity, in that it is fluid. Identity changes over time and is never fixed. It is constantly changing and
developing depending on the context.
This is a difficult reality for many to grasp, and Kremntschcuk’s way of
dealing with this change is to address it through his photographs. He grew up in Russia and studied
photography at Hamburg University in Germany. After studying in Germany he remained living there. Upon his return to Russia he felt a
sense of loss. He no longer felt
as if he belonged in his homeland and this is evident in his photographs. The cold and eerie nature relay a sense
of disconnect from the subjects.
There is certainly a sense of identity related amongst the subjects,
they relate to one another and describe a culture that seems a bit lost and
lacking hope. Departing from
Russia may have given the artist new eyes to look at his homeland. The decayed sense of belonging is
apparent. Instead of a warm
atmosphere one would associate with home, Kremntschcuk makes the images cold,
muted, and distanced. Kremntschcuk
is clearly dealing with his identity shifting and transforming, such that he no
longer feels as if he fits in with this native culture. Both his identity and
his homeland’s have shifted and he no longer know how to make them fit
together. This is not the only
theme in art Kremntschcuk is exploring.
Additionally
many artists deal with the idea of time in their work. Like the theme of identity, time is an
abstract concept and can be interpreted and utilized in artist’s work in
several different ways.
Kremntschcuk chooses to look at time through his art in that he is rediscovering
and revisiting his past.
Many artist choose to look at history when using time in their work,
this artist is choosing to look at his personal history. As previously mentioned he is
revisiting a land that he used to call his home. Russia is his history it is who he used to be and what made
him. It is as if he is trying to
reconnect or figure out where he belongs within this society. In this case, the artist’s history is
based solely on his memory, which may account for the sense of detachment that
is marked in the pieces. Something
in his home that he revisits is not matching up with the history that he is so
desperately trying to connect with.
In this way, Kremntschcuk is revisiting the past in a differently than
many artists do. It is similar
however, in that it is trying to shed new light onto something that has been
forgotten, idealized, or changed with time. He seems to find inconsistencies with what he remembered. Time has changed the artist and his
subject. As stated above this disconnect
is apparent in the cold, haunting, and distant feelings the collection of
artwork.
Overall
I believe that the exhibition is successful in depicting what the artist wishes
to communicate. The pictures fit
together well and flow from one to another. They all seem to say the same thing to the viewer and
reinforce what the artist is feeling. It was nice that the photo’s were larger because it
allowed for the viewer to really get in and explore the subjects and feel a
sense of connection, especially considering that some of the portraits made the
subjects life size. The viewer was
able to relate to the subject, even if solely on a human level.
One thing that was a bit distracting
from the show was that the glass was rather shiny, and with the way that the
lights fell on the photographs the viewer could see their reflection. This did not seem as if is fit with the
show and was a bit distracting, because it made it hard to see all of the
detail. The other thing that was
distracting was one photograph that seemed to contradict all of the other
photographs. This one was
comprised of a party in some kind of a park. The colors were warm and saturated. The scene, in contrast with the others,
was rather inviting. This could be
the artist stretching to reconnect with his past, but it seemed out of place
and isolated against the others.
After reviewing other photographs in the series No Direction Home online, I realized that this was not the only
photograph with these warm feelings.
If the artist and curator had chosen a couple other photographs with
these warm tones they may have made a bit more sense in the exhibition as an
attempt to reconnect. However,
overall I thought that the exhibition was successful in capturing Kremntschcuk’s
exploration of time and identity and his feelings of loss and nostalgia.
His website has all the photos.
